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Heaven ReathEighth grader Charly Burns holds gift basket full of Trailside merch. The gift basket was one of many prizes participants could have won during bingo.

Trailside Middle School hosted its first, hopefully annual, Bingo Night. Bingo Night was hosted by Sources of Strength, a national, peer-led suicide prevention program. Overall the night was viewed as a success by those who ran it, and they hope to be able to host nights like this again.

Bingo Night took place on January 16th, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Trailside’s Sources of Strength peer leaders were in charge of calling bingo numbers, giving out prizes, and selling bingo cards and snacks. Bingo Night’s prizes ranged from a fifty dollar gift card to Nagoya Sushi Bar and Japanese Steak House to other prizes like Trailside and Sources of Strength merchandise. According to the seventh-grade guidance counselor, Ms. Handy, all the proceeds made from the event will be going towards future Sources of Strength events. “I think it would be great to do [Bingo Nights] annually or even twice a year,” she said.

Heaven ReathEighth graders Anne Treadwell (left) and Charly Burns (right) mark off bingo numbers. Treadwell and Burns were two of five plus Sources of Strength peer leaders to call out numbers.

Trailside Middle School started incorporating Sources of Strength into its school starting at the end of 2017. As of now, Trailside has thirty-five peer leaders between seventh and eighth grade and over thirteen adult advisers. Sources of Strength strives to boost eight main things for a person to draw strength from in a time of need. Those eight things being healthy activities, positive friends, family support, mental health, medical access, generosity, and spirituality. By having the first Family Bingo Night, the peer leaders hope to promote these things.

The goal of Bingo Night was to help students build relationships with family members. Sources of Strength holds events like Bingo Night in hopes of bringing families closer together. “One of the eight main things that Sources of Strength focuses on is Family Support, so we were hoping that by hosting an event for families, we could help family members get closer together,” said eighth-grader Anne Treadwell, an original member of Trailside’s Sources of Strength program.

As for how many families actually showed up, the Sources of Strength team seemed thrilled at the turnout. One of the peer leaders running the event, eighth-grader Charly Burns, remarked,
“I was really surprised how many people showed up. I thought there was going to be fewer people. It was way more people than what I thought would come.” Sources of Strength hopes to be able to have bigger events in the future in hopes of drawing in more families. “Well, in the future [the Sources of Strength team] hope to have more money so we can have bigger events and attract more people,” said Burns.

Overall, Bingo Night seemed to be a success in the eyes of the Sources of Strength team. The students and teachers who helped plan the event have big plans for what to do in the future using the money made from that night. Granted, while still being a relatively new addition to Trailside, Sources of Strength will hopefully be something that has, and will continue to be beneficial to the school for years to come.